Thomas
Clarkson
was born in Wisbech in 1760. He was educated at St. John's College,
Cambridge, and was afterwards ordained
as a deacon.
In 1785 Cambridge University held an
essay competition with the title: "Is it rights to make men slaves
against their wills?" Clarkson had not considered the matter
before but after carrying out considerable research on the subject
submitted his essay. Clarkson won first prize and was asked to read
his essay to the University Senate. On his way home to London
he had a spiritual experience. He later described how he had "a
direct revelation from God ordering me to devote my life to abolishing
the trade."
Clarkson contacted Granville Sharp, who
had already started a campaign to end the slave-trade. In 1787 Clarkson
and Sharp formed the Society for the Abolition
of the Slave Trade. Of the twelve members on the committee, nine
were Quakers. Influential figures such
as John Wesley and Josiah
Wedgwood gave their support to the campaign. Later they persuaded
William Wilberforce, the MP for Hull,
to be their spokesman in the House of Commons.
Thomas
Clarkson
was given the responsibility of collecting information to support
the abolition of the slave trade. This included interviewing 20,000
sailors and obtaining equipment used on the slave-ships such as iron
handcuffs, leg-shackles, thumb screws, instruments for forcing open
slave's jaws and branding irons. In 1787 he published his pamphlet,
A
Summary View of the Slave Trade and of the Probable Consequences of
Its Abolition.
Clarkson was a brilliant writer and Jane
Austin,
who completely disagreed with his views on slavery, was so impressed
with his writing style that she claimed after reading one of his books
that she was "in love with its author".
After the passing of the Abolition of the
Slave Trade Act in 1807 Clarkson published his book History
of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade.
Clarkson was not satisfied with the measures passed by Parliament
and joined with Thomas Fowell Buxton to
form the Society for the Mitigation and
Gradual Abolition of Slavery. However, Clarkson had to wait until
1833 before Parliament passed the Slavery
Abolition Act that gave all slaves in the British Empire their
freedom.
Thomas
Clarkson
retired to Ipswich, Suffolk, where he died on 26th September, 1846.
(1)
Thomas Clarkson interviewed a sailor who worked on a slave-ship
and published the account in his book, Essay on the Slave Trade
(1789)
The misery which the slaves endure in consequence of too close a stowage
is not easy to describe. I have heard them frequently complaining
of heat, and have seen them fainting, almost dying for want of water.
Their situation is worse in rainy weather. We do everything for them
in our power. In all the vessels in which I have sailed in the slave
trade, we never covered the gratings with a tarpawling, but made a
tarpawling awning over the booms, but some were still panting for
breath.
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